Montrose Area taxes up 1.4 mills

BY STACI WILSON

Taxpayers in the Montrose Area School District will see just over a 1.4 mill increase in their tax bills this year. The district’s 2016-17 budget totals nearly $26 million.

The board voted Monday to set tax rates at 47.3027 mills, up from the 2015 rate of 45.8805.

Other tax revenue approved included an Act 679 $5 per capita tax; as well as an Act 511 $5 per capita tax; and 75 mills of assessed valuation for occupation.

The 2 percent, single payment discount period will run July 1 through Aug. 31; face amount collection runs Sept. 1 – Oct. 31; and single payment from Nov. 1 and after carries a 10 percent penalty.

Installment payments can be started on or before Aug. 10; with the second one due on or before Sept. 20; and the third payment on or before Oct. 31.

The district received $7,307 for its Homestead/Farmstead exclusion. Those property owners with approved Homestead/Farmstead applications will see a $352.61 savings on their tax bills.

The board will hold a special meeting on June 28 to conduct end-of-the-year fiscal business.

Montrose Education Association president Teri Evans once again requested the board move the teachers’ start date for the coming year.

She said faculty members would be going five weeks without a paycheck due to the current contract language. Teachers are not paid until the first Friday after the start of the school year.

Board president Gloria Smith said she believed that at the last meeting, the board opted to keep the start date as scheduled.

“I left thinking it was not a done deal,” Evans said.

MEA’s Jack Kiehl said the board approved the school calendar but said issue was left with the board being able to revisit the date.

Superintendent Carol Boyce said construction issues pushed back the school start time until after Labor Day, but the board did have the power to change the teachers’ starting date.

Boyce also said Evans’ request was moving into the realm of contract negotiations.

School director Richard Jordan said MEA had asked to go to arbitration over the contract impasse and said he was not in favor of piecemealing an agreement.

“You didn’t want negotiations,” he said, “You want arbitration. That’s what we’re going to do.”

Board member Paul Adams said that with the negotiations process, the board could consider the request as an “olive branch.”

With the state extending a moratorium two years on the high-stakes Keystone Exam graduation requirement, High School Assistant Principal Eric Powers proposed new district graduation requirements.

Powers recommended the three Keystone Exams be kept as a local requirement.

He said that retaining that requirement would “keep the pressure on us” as well as make certain students also had “some skin in the game.”

Often, he said, districts and teachers are evaluated based on high stakes testing but the students often are not.

Students who are not successful with the exams would be given the option of completing a graduation project during their senior year.

Principal William King also proposed increasing the athletic eligibility requirements in the district.

The proposed change would make any student athlete failing two or more classes ineligible to play for that week.